Opinion: ‘Housing matters – it’s time to act’

It has been over a year since the coronavirus first made its presence felt.

As much as some policy makers and individuals talk about a “return to normal”, much has irrevocably changed.

Perhaps the biggest shift lay where our lives are located. Most people had multiple points on their compass: work, home, school, place of worship, and so on. The demands of lockdown have significantly narrowed our horizons: home has become much more important.

Once the pandemic lifts, there will no doubt be a euphoric period: many will understandably rush out to experience togetherness and sociability again. However, many businesses have discovered they can cut premises costs by encouraging home working. Many retailers have shifted online. New films are being delivered online instead of in cinemas. Home may become less important than it is now, but it’s unlikely to be regarded in the same way as it was prior to the pandemic.

Thus, it’s unconscionable that we still have no realistic plan to get us out of our present housing crisis. We just aren’t building enough affordable homes in Peterborough. Current trends are likely to exacerbate the problem: the pandemic has created incentives for people to move out of bigger cities to places like our city. Think about it: for the person who works in a London office two or three days a week, Peterborough with its good rail links is just about perfect.

The result of these pressures will be higher rents, higher house prices, and unfortunately possibly more homelessness.

The current Administration is generally stuck in a reactive mode of thinking: it will do something once the problem arises, provided it is big enough and gets sufficiently horrific headlines. But in the case of housing, the problem has been with us for many years.

Yet the Administration still hasn’t done enough in my opinion.

Although we are not yet in power, the Labour Group is doing its best to address the issue. Councillor Mohammed Jamil proposed, and I seconded a motion regarding housing on 27 January. We want the Administration to recognise that everyone has a right to a home. We also want the current emergency measures which support rough sleepers to be extended beyond the pandemic period. We’re concerned that too many private renters are in arrears and facing eviction; Citizens Advice suggests the average amount of arrears is £750. It’s estimated that 56% of those renters have never been in arrears before.

The motion proposes that the council ask the government for stronger measures to deal with the housing crisis, rough sleeping, and to extend eviction periods. We should also increase local funding to ensure fewer people wind up without a home.

Will the Administration do this? It took the pandemic to make them take strong measures in the first place: they may be under the false impression that the end of lockdown is reason enough to return to the previous status quo. But as previously stated, the status quo of yesteryear is no more. Our lives have changed; housing is more valuable than it was given these shifts. Those without a home are, if anything, even more needy than they were prior to the coronavirus’ emergence.

We have to recognise this before the emergency ends and treat the end of the emergency as seriously as we did when we were in its midst. We need more housing and a Labour-led administration will deliver that.